Catholic Church in Ireland

The Catholic Church in Ireland is the Irish affiliate of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Saint Patrick in 430 AD. The church arrived in Ireland from Roman Britain during the 5th century, and it gradually regained ground and replaced the old pagan traditions; the church replaced the worship of pagan gods with the veneration of Christian saints. In the 1111 Synod of Rath Breasail, the diocesan structure was introduced, and, under Norman rule, a large number of foreign-born prelates were appointed. In 1558, following the death of Queen Mary of England and amid the Reformation, all but two of the bishops of Ireland broke from the Papacy and joined the Church of Ireland, but very few of the congregations followed. Queen Elizabeth I of England outlawed Catholicism in response to Papist conspiracies against her, and the Church of Ireland was the established church in Ireland until 1 January 1871. In 1649, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell crushed the uprising of Confederate Ireland and executed all of the Catholic priests whom he had captured. However, Catholicism remained strong in Ireland, and, at the time of the partition of Ireland in 1922, 92.6% of the present-day Republic of Ireland's population was Catholic and 7.4% Protestant. Catholicism remained a major part of Irish society over the next few decades, and it was not until 1995 that divorce and remarriage was permitted. During the 2000s and 2010s, the Church declined due to social liberal modernity.